Kengor, the author of Reagan, The Crusader and also God and Ronald Reagan, takes particular issue with two scenes. The first shows Reagan, played by Alan Rickman, refusing without reason to support a bill imposing sanctions on South Africa's apartheid regime. Kengor cites the lack of context offered as evidence that the film-makers have pursued an "ideologically driven fiction".

The second scene involves a dinner party to which the central character – a veteran butler played by Forest Whitaker, and based on a real-life White House staffer – is invited with his wife (Oprah Winfrey) by Nancy Reagan (Jane Fonda). In the film, the implication is that Whitaker's and Winfrey's characters, who are shown as feeling uncomfortable at the predominance of white guests and black waiters, had been invited along as racially diverse window dressing.

"This unusually kind invitation would have been a typical nice gesture by the Reagans, who throughout their lives did thoughtful things like this. To portray it as anything else is cruel," Kengor said.

The Butler, whose posters note that it is "inspired by a true story", has been partly adapted by Danny Strong from an article by journalist Wil Haygood. Haygood's account of the dinner party did not note any discomfort felt by the butler. It reads:

"'Had champagne that night,' the butler's wife would remember all these years later. As she said it, Eugene, rocking in his chair, just grinned: for so many years he had stocked champagne in the White House."

Said Kengor: "The screenwriter and makers of this film better have some hard evidence for this. I hope they have at least some quotes somewhere from the butler saying he felt like a prop. If they don't, then they should be ashamed of themselves. If they don't, then this is Hollywood malpractice."

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